Now the area’s municipal councillor says testing by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change shows contamination in 11 wells, and there’s no forecast of how long it will stay.

“The firefighters came in and suppressed the fire. Following that the groundwater has been contaminated with multiple contaminants. There’s quite a list of those,” George Sachs said Thursday.

“The residents … have been unable to bathe or shower or drink the water. It’s a really nasty situation,” he said.

It’s not clear whether the chemicals were from the building materials, building contents, or firefighting efforts.

The ministry has analyzed samples from the wells and gave owners breakdowns of each of their wells at a meeting Wednesday evening.

Sachs didn’t know what the various chemicals were.

“Different houses are affected differently with different ratios,” he said.

And he said the ministry has no idea how long the contamination will last. Staff have taken a second set of samples “to see if the plume is moving, and in what direction if it is (moving), and if it’s diluting some with the rain and snow that we have had,” he said.

Residents are getting free bottled water for the time being. Their mood is surprisingly upbeat, he said, but they are also impatient to get more information from the ministry and a private consultant hired by an insurance company.

“The residents and the council of Drummond/North Elmsley have expressed concern at the pace at which this is happening,” he said. “We really want to get this picked up a little bit and get some answers for these people as far as a plan of action and what we’re going to do for them.

“They’re living in very horrific conditions right now … Definitely the frustration is building.”

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